Re: For A Lost Soldier book vs film: divergent!

Director Roeland Kerbosch chose to use the novel as a frame in which to tell a different story to that of the novel, one that was more straightforward and 'romantic'. Since it is a different story, it is difficult to compare it with that of the novel, and it will be a matter of personal judgement whether the story it tells is better or worse than its source material. With something like the recent BBC/Netflix Lord of the Flies, the miniseries, though departing from the novel in one or two crucial ways with respect to character development, keeps enough of the original story to make comparison easier. In this case, I am inclined to think that the departures from the novel are unfortunate, that the novel portrays a deeper truth than the miniseries, which is not to say that the miniseries is bad considered in itself. Whether the same is true of Roeland Kerbosch's Voor een verloren soldaat will be a matter of judgement. It is a film I like so much that I am inclined to treat the novel as a wholly separate product, as merely supplying the narrative framework for the director's personal vision. But others may legitimately feel differently. The only thing one might baulk at is if the film tells such a different story that one feels that the claim that the film is 'based on' the novel no longer stands up. And this too will, to some extent, be a matter of personal judgement.